


Burning up for you

by dreamscapering



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bucky Barnes Cooks, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, M/M, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, Sick Fic, Tony-centric, he gets food poisoning, so sorry if thats what youre here for, sorry for the number of times I reference Tony rushing to the bathroom, the sam/rhodey is in the background, the second half of this is, tony has one brain cell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 20:36:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20513123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamscapering/pseuds/dreamscapering
Summary: Bucky and Sam just moved in across the hall from our favorite MIT nerds, and Tony's just trying to feel like less of a disaster in front of Bucky as he goes through the highs and lows (okay, just lows really) of fly infestations, food poisoning, and all his friends ganging up on him.Not like it matters, though, since he's pretty sure Bucky's dating Sam. Oh well, but poor Rhodey.





	Burning up for you

**Author's Note:**

> uh. this is like 90% dialogue so I want to say sorry but you know what it is a stylistic choice so I'm just going to own it. 
> 
> Anyway, please enjoy these losers and their four brain cells. Which I'm pretty sure all belong to Rhodey. Also, we love the Jonas Brothers and we love cheesy titles that only kinda sorta relate to the fic! (there's gotta be some sort of fever related to food poisoning, right?)

Tony's fly infestation had officially gotten out of hand, and if you asked him or Rhodey, Bruce's plants were 100% to blame. Or you could ask Bruce, and hear some lecture about humidity and weather patterns and cracks in the windows. Either way, it sucked. So far, Tony had been able to keep the flies out of his bedroom, but good things don't last forever, especially when you're Tony Stark.

So naturally, when Tony gets home from his summer internship, arms loaded full of boxes of gears and deconstructed computer parts and whatever else he could find leftover in the research lab he'd been working in, he leaves his bedroom door open long enough for one of those dang flies to feel welcome in his room. Tony puts his boxes down, accounting that he brought everything he meant to back home, slings his backpack onto his bed, and steps out of his shoes. And that's when he first notices it. The bzzzzzz. He wants to be optimistic, he wants to believe its just his phone on vibrate, but those flies have been chilling in his apartment for the last two weeks and now one must be in his bedroom and this is the Last. Straw. His eyes dart around the room. It has to be in here somewhere. Over the bed! There! Tony reaches for it, starts dancing around the room, as the fly zips zaps zops over and under his desk, his chair, his bed. Tries to clap it in between his hands, tries to shout "Boo!," to scare it away, opens his door to try to chase it back in to the living room where all its friends are living (on Bruce's monstera).

"Move! You won't like it here! It's shit! C'mon! BOO! Boo! Go back out there!" Tony tried to make appeals with the fly, but its tiny fly brain just couldn't comprehend Tony logic.

"What the hell?" a throaty voice said from outside Tony's window. "What's wrong with this place?"

Tony looked over, and saw that his window had been open the entire time. His curtains undrawn, his blinds open, and the glass, though closed, not even a little soundproof. He notes a man with long brown hair, and pulls the curtains closed before he can notice anything else about him. God, that could've been embarrassing.

When Tony went back to chasing the fly out of his room, he realized some god must have taken mercy on him, becsause it seemed to no longer be there, and must have flown out his open bedroom door. Tony shut it, before any other pests could come in, and settled into his evening groove of working on his personal pet projects he wasn't allowed time for at work. Grabbing his laptop, he pulled up the latest code for the helper bot he's been working on producing, and settled in for the night.

~ ~ ~

“Tones! Get your ass out of bed already!” Rhodey called, as Tony barely blinked his eyes open in recognition of being shouted at.

“I made you coffee, but if you’re not out here in the next sixty seconds, its getting dumped on your head to wake you up!”

And Tony was moving, jumping out of bed and causing his laptop to crash to the floor with him as he jerked his arm out from under it. Tony tried to shake out the pins and needles from his arm after falling asleep while working, and walked outside. No need to get dressed if you never changed into pajamas, am I right?

When Tony got to the kitchen, eager for Rhodey coffee, he saw that Rhodey wasn’t the only one there. Traitor, inviting guests over and leaving Tony blindsided in yesterday's clothes. But at least he was a traitor who offered gifts, Tony thought, as Rhodey slid over a perfectly brewed cup, filled to the brim with coffee and just the right amount of sugar to induce early onset heart disease. Perfect.

Rhodey, however, looked less pleased, making a face in Tony’s direction. “When’s the last you showered, Tones?”

“Um- excuse me? What? You can’t just! I’m sorry. You can’t just say stuff like that in front of,” Tony sputtered, glancing to the strangers in his kitchen, “strangers?” He barreled on, “And who are you, anyway? Why are you here?”

“I’m Sam, we’re your new neighbors, and we just wanted to say hi. Rhodey and I work out at the same gym and he told me how great an apartment complex this is.”

“OHh! You're Sam! Hi, I’m Tony and apparently I don’t take showers. I’d offer my hand to shake but it probably smells.”

“Geez, Tony I didn’t mean it like that. But you have to have noticed how greasy you can get when it’s been a few days.”

“Hey, but speaking of grease, this is my roommate, Bucky.”

Bucky. Bucky. Why did he look familiar? It wasn’t his eyes, those were so gorgeous he’d never forget where he met those eyes. Maybe his build? Pretty standard. His smile? His hair? Oh sh—

“So, uh, what’s wrong with this place? You never answered me.”

“Hey, not everything’s about you, y’know. I was talking to a fly yesterday. And no one was supposed to see that.”

“Really? Cause it sounded like you were calling me ‘boo’ and telling me to get the hell out of here.”

“I mean if you wanted to leave I wouldn’t stop you, but nope. Definitely the fly.”

“I don’t want to leave,” Bucky said, as he flashed a smile at Tony.

“Good,” Tony squeaked, then added, with a moment's hesitation, "boo."

“Alright, now that whatever that was is settled, Sam and I were thinking of grabbing some lunch, if you dweebs want to join.”

“Sure you wouldn’t rather have some private time?” Tony asked, waggling his eyebrows.

“What? Tony? Shut up, you’re coming. Bucky, you in?”

“Yeah, I’m in. Where we going?”

And that’s how they all ended up at Burger King, stuffed into a four person booth definitely meant for smaller people. Like, Tony sized people.

Sam wanted to go this new healthy food place, which was immediately nixed by everybody, Rhodey wanted to go to McDonalds, and when Bucky said, “screw that, BK’s better.” Well, Tony might have just fallen a bit in love.

“Hey Rhodey! Hey Rhodey!"

“What.”

“Dare you to get a taco!”

“What the Fuck, Tony! Who the hell comes to Burger King and gets a taco, since when did Burger King even have tacos?”

"Double dare you to get a taco!" Bucky chimed in.

"Oh, not you. You are not allowed to join in on this, I barely know you."

Sam looked Rhodey straight in the eyes. "Double dog dare you."

"Gotta accept the dare now, honey bunches! You can't turn down a double dog dare."

"Look, the deal is two for a dollar. Which is horrifying. But I'll do it. If Tony eats the other taco."

"Deal. But I'm still getting a whopper."

So they ate their tacos, Rhodey barely stomaching it, absolutely revolted by the affront to Mexican food, or Mexican American food, or whatever this was trying to be. It could maybe pass as dog food. Tony ate his in two bites, eager for his two whoppers and fries, living for Rhodey's face contorted as he made his way through the taco, taking drinks after every bite.

"Well," Rhodey said, stealing one of Tony's fries, "that was the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth."

"I think Ty's the worst thing I ever put in mine."

"And it better stay that way. You ever get lower than him, then I'm clearly not doing my job right."

"Who's Ty? And what's your job, Rhodey?" Sam asked, trying to get used to the easy friendship between the nerdy pair.

"Ty is Tony's ex boyfriend. Or not boyfriend? They had a thing. And my job, as Tony's big brother, is to make sure, this dumb-dumb doesn't do anything too dumb, or get involved with jerks. Again."

"I'm the brains, Rhodey's the common sense, and Brucie's the enforcer."

"Yeah right, as if you're the brains."

"Then what am I?"

"You could be the hot one," Bucky chimed in.

"Wow, reducing me to my looks, really appreciate that, boo."

"No, no, Tony. Bucky may have a point. You are the prettiest of the three of us, and Bruce isn't enforcing anything from India. I'm brains, he's heart, you're body."

Tony chuckled a little, without really smiling. "Well. Great. Glad we can all agree I'm pretty."

"Aw come on, Tony, I didn't mean it like that! But you date the most and you know you have the best hair of all of us. And you said it yourself, I'm common sense, which makes me brains. And as the only one of us not selling his soul to the United States government, Bruce gets to be the heart."

"Hey, I still haven't figured out what I'm doing post grad! You don't get to know what I'm doing before I do!"

"You're going to work for your father's company, at least as long as it takes you to figure your life out. And you and I both know Howard is just the middle man of giving yourself to the American government."

Tony slumped in his seat, feeling defeated. Staring at his pathetic future of working for his dad, wondering if he really was just "the hot one," like Bucky said. Like Rhodey said. Well, at least Bucky thinks he's hot, Tony decides, as he sighs. "Yeah. Guess you're right."

"Don't stress too much about it, Tones, we all know out of the three of us, you're the one that's gonna change the world."

"Nope, that's still Bruce. Busy revolutionizing sewage systems across the third world."

"How do you guys know Bruce?"

"He's our third roommate, gone for the Summer on a trip with Engineers Without Borders. Dude's a major hippie, but like. The cool kind? Studies environmental engineering like a NERD."

"Tony, we're all nerds."

"Damn right you are. Geez. Engineers." Sam inputted.

"And I'm sorry, what's your major, again?" Tony questioned, curious as to why Rhodey has become such good friends with this Sam guy when he's anti engineering.

"I’m doing Pysch at BU, double majoring in American History for the hell of it."

"Of course you are," Tony sighed.

"Hey, don't say it like that! Sam studies the human condition. The brain. He wants to go into counseling. It's all super cool."

"Well, thanks for that Rhodey."

"What about you, Bucky, what do you study?"

"I don't. Got my associate's and started working right after that. School just wasn't really it for me. But my pal, Stevie, set me up with Sam and next thing I knew I was looking for a job in Boston."

"Oh. Got it," Tony said, reflecting on how Bucky and Sam had been interacting. They hadn't seemed like a couple, but you never can tell for sure, Tony supposes.

"So, Bucky, where do you work?"

"I'm working in an auto repair shop, mostly doing the fixing, but the people who own the place are a bit clueless when it comes to running a business, so sometimes I help with the bookkeeping."

Oh God, this guy couldn't be more Tony's type. If the beautiful eyes weren't enough, or really just his beautiful all of him, there was the wit he had found as they were conversing, his acknowledgement of BK as the superior burger chain, and now he worked with cars. And he was dating Sam. Who, what? Rhodey had never mentioned that bit about his favorite workout buddy, and he once spent ten minutes talking about what his butt looked like while he jogged. So, there was that, but now he felt worse, because this means his platypus's crush was taken.

"You hear that, Tones? Bucky here seems like your kind of guy." Rhodey teased, elbowing Tony's side, and Bucky laughed. And god, what a laugh. 

"And what type is that?" Bucky asked.

"From what I've heard from Rhodes, Tony only goes for nerds. So, yeah, I'd say Buck's his type."

What kind of couple talks like this, Tony wonders. They must have been dating a really long time to be so comfortable talking about being other people's type, without getting jealous.

"Nah, Tony either goes for nerds or jerks. It's my job to make sure he sticks with nerds. So, Buckaroo, you aren't a jerk, are you?"

"Course not. I'd treat Tony right."

"As if, Barnes. You wouldn't know how to treat a guy right if you read the manual," Sam says, looking Bucky up and down.

"Excuse you, as if you'd know."

"Oh, trust me," Sam said, looking straight at Tony, "I know exactly how this guy treats his dates. You can do better."

"Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

~~~

"Hey Rhodey! Did you change the A/C temp? It's so hot in here!"

"No? Honestly, I was starting to wonder if you did. Is there a window open?"

"There better fucking not be. That's how those damn flies got in. I haven't opened a window for the past two weeks."

"Yeah. Huh. Me neither."

The two decided to let the issue settle, and Tony went to take a shower, still a little peeved at Rhodey's earlier teasing, and hoping some cold water will help the hot apartment feel more bearable. He hops in, the water having taken much less time than usual to heat up. If he was being honest, he wouldn't mind the water being a bit colder. As he washed his hair (with shampoo more expensive than his weekly groceries because damn right it’s the best hair in his gang, and it better stay that way), Tony noticed a headache start to set in and his stomach felt like it was in knots. And the water was so frigging hot.

Alarm bells are starting to go off in his head, but Tony elects to ignore them, carrying on with his conditioning treatment. He grabs the bottle, and it slips between his hands. Bending down to grab it, he immediately feels a thousand times worse. The knots in his stomach feel like they’re squeezing the life out of him, and damn it’s hot.

Tony wants to say, and that’s when he puked. Well, he’d prefer to say that’s when he puked. But let’s just say, that’s when Tony realized he had food poisoning, and he wasn’t puking.

“Gross gross gross fuck fuck gross. Oh my god.”

Tony turns the shower off, still feeling like crap, and hears knocking. “Tony, Tony I need that bathroom. I swear I will come in—“ Rhodey’s desperation was seeping through his voice, but there was basically no way in Hell Tony was going to let Rhodey come in to their shared bathroom.

“Go to Sam’s! Or to the gas station across the street! Go in the trash can for all I care, but you are not coming in here!”

Rhodey was running towards the kitchen sink, vomiting up his lunch, shortly followed by his breakfast, as Tony was going through the bathroom cabinet for cleaning supplies, feeling horrible but not about to leave a mess like that for someone to find.

Maybe Rhodey was on to something when he said McDonalds was superior to Burger King. Either way, that was his last BK taco.

~~~

Tony was on day three of food poisoning, feeling just as bad as day one. Rhodey, the healthy bastard, was only sick for about 24 hours, crediting his daily vitamins, exercise, and general diet as keeping his immune system in check.

Yeah, alright. That’s fair, Tony thought, but definitely not worth eating three meals a day for. He’d consider the vitamins, but only the gummi kind. And vegetables? Eugh. On the other hand, Tony was rushing to the bathroom for the seventh time that day. So. Maybe he could stomach some carrots a little more often.

As Tony washed his hands, he heard knocking coming from his back door. Groaning, he made his way over, annoyed he couldn’t go back to his spot on the couch, as he made his way through rewatching the cheesy original Batman series.

When Tony opened the door, he saw Bucky, with a thermos in one hand and a smoothie in the other. “Brought you soup,” he said as he made his way inside, making himself comfortable in the little kitchen.

“Just got to heat it up a little bit first, take your juice, and go back to bed.”

Tony swiped the smoothie off the counter, and started sucking. “Not going to bed.” he grumbled.

“Well, go somewhere you can have a lie down. I’ll be right out with your soup. And drink slowly. Don’t want you getting a brain freeze on me.”

Tony slumped back to the living room, rewinding his episode to where he had left it. Catwoman was in this one, he wanted to enjoy it, which he did as he wrapped his blanket back around himself and laid back down on the couch.

Not long after Tony had settled back in, Bucky showed up with a bowl of soup and roll of crackers, which he set on the coffee table on his way over to Tony, who started to sit up as he was faced with food.

“Hey now! We’re trying to make you better here, sugar, not worse. Lie back down,” Bucky said, as he grabbed pillows from the opposite couch and fluffed them up, tucking them behind Tony’s head. “There you go, that’s better. Eat your soup.”

Tony does, and he shudders, his body filling with a warmth so different from the dreadful heat and sweats he’s been experiencing the past few days. The broth is light, allowing him to stomach it with little worries, and it tastes like coming home. Like sick days as a child, when Anna would make him soup and no one yelled at him for missing school, because he was too young to have school to miss.

“Is it good? Rhodes said chicken noodle is your favorite, but I thought he might be guessing. Everyone likes chicken noodle.”

“It is my favorite,” Tony offered with a smile. “It’s good too.”

“I’m glad, I made it this morning.”

“For me?”

“Yeah, Tones. How many people do you think I know that have been sick for the past three days? We gotta love our neighbors when they’re hurling their guts out, its in the Bible.”

“Oh. Yeah. Well, thanks for the soup.” Tony says with a frown, wondering what kind of foods Bucky makes for Sam. Wondering if he cooks all the time for his boyfriend, or if he saves his energy cooking for sick people he knows.

“Come on, I didn’t just come to give you soup, I wanted to give you company. Plus it’s a big date night tonight, if you haven’t heard, and I wanted to give Sam some space.”

Got it. Time apart from the boyfriend before they go on dates, well, Tony supposes, that probably helps keep it exciting. Fun. Fresh. Whatever. Stupid. “When’s your date?”

“My date? No silly, I said Sam’s date. Didn’t Rhodes tell you they were going out tonight?”

What. What. What. Tony is positive that if his platypus got a date with Sam hotass Wilson, then surely Tony would’ve been the first to know. Tony vaguely recalls something Rhodey said earlier, probably when he was hunched over a toilet. Something about him and Sam going out to a bar tonight, but is that really a date? Not to mention…

“And you’re okay with that?” 

“Well, yeah. I mean I don’t really know why anyone would be interested in Sam in the first place, guy’s lame as hell, okay? But yeah, they seem like they really like each other. Are you not okay with that?”

“But aren’t you and Sam…” Tony tried to ask, trailing off.

Bucky’s eyes widen as he stares at Tony in disbelief. “First of all, Ew. Sam? Ew. No! Why would you even?” He’s nearly shouting, arms waving all over the place, trying to get a handle on what’s going on.

“The other day you said your friend Stevie set you two up?”

“He did. As roommates. And then after I said that, we spent the next ten minutes talking about what a good couple we’d make! Why would I say that? Why would Sam say that if we were in a relationship?”

“I don’t know, I thought you were just really comfortable with each other.”

“Yeah, comfortable laughing at each other’s dumbassery. Dear god, is he going to have a hoot with this one.”

“So when you said you came to bring me soup because its in the Bible?”

“Aw, Tony. That was just me joking around. Since I clearly haven’t been all that clear, you seem like a great guy, clearly our friends think we would get along, and you’re hot as hell. I brought you soup ‘cause I like ya. And I was wondering if maybe after you get better, you might want to go on a date with me.”

“I’d like that. Just, one thing?”

“Anything, sugar.”

“We’re not getting tacos.”


End file.
